Top 10 Movie Scandals You Forgot About
How did we forget these scandalous scandals? Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re counting down our picks for the Hollywood controversies that got overshadowed by other scandals throughout the years.
Transcript
00:00 It's beautiful.
00:02 It belongs in a museum.
00:05 Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the Hollywood controversies
00:10 that got overshadowed by other scandals throughout the years.
00:13 Hey, you wanna see something really scary?
00:17 Number 10, The Dark Satire of Heathers
00:20 Do I look like Mother Teresa? If I did, I probably wouldn't mind talking to the geek squad.
00:25 Depending on who you ask, this high school comedy is either a brilliant underrated satire,
00:29 or a dated and misguided story that trivializes taboo subjects.
00:33 Winona Ryder plays Veronica, a popular girl involved in the deaths of her popular classmates.
00:38 I just killed my best friend.
00:40 And your worst enemy.
00:42 Same difference.
00:44 Though it has plenty of prescient points about the sensationalization of school violence,
00:48 many viewers and critics worried its tone could be misinterpreted.
00:51 The movie's storyline made headlines again when the controversial TV series was announced.
00:55 If the lackluster, if not hostile reception to that series is any indication,
00:59 Heathers still has the power to get people riled up.
01:02 Today was great. Chaos was great.
01:05 Chaos is what killed the dinosaurs, darling.
01:08 Number 9, Aloha Casting Controversy
01:11 Oh, Captain Rang-Eye.
01:12 It's Ng.
01:13 It's like Rang, but without the R or the I.
01:15 It's just Ng.
01:16 This 2015 rom-com is about a former US Air Force officer falling for a pilot, Captain Allison Ng.
01:22 Ng was based on a real person who had Chinese and Hawaiian heritage.
01:26 So, naturally, there was confusion and outright vitriol when Emma Stone was cast in the role.
01:31 Writer-director Cameron Crowe insisted she was based on a real person who, despite her heritage, was red-headed like Stone.
01:37 Well, sir, I will also be an invaluable addition to our joint mission.
01:41 I am a quarter Hawaiian.
01:43 Ho'olalea.
01:44 The casting reopened a larger conversation about whitewashing in Hollywood movies.
01:48 Stone has since expressed regret for taking the role, quite publicly, in fact.
01:52 She even shouted out an impromptu apology at the 2019 Golden Globes in response to a joke made by co-host Sandra Oh.
01:58 It is the first studio film with an Asian-American lead since Ghost in the Shell and Aloha.
02:04 Number 8, I Heart Huckabee's Set Drama
02:13 I'll find a lawyer.
02:14 Oh, or maybe even go to the FBI. How about that?
02:16 David O. Russell is infamous for his combative approach to filmmaking.
02:20 Actors like Amy Adams and George Clooney have had run-ins with the volatile director,
02:24 but Lily Tomlin went toe-to-toe with him right on camera.
02:27 Leaked behind-the-scenes footage from the set of I Heart Huckabee's
02:30 showed Tomlin and Russell in two separate, expletive-laden confrontations.
02:34 Now, this happened on a movie set on a regular basis, and this was just a cheat.
02:40 No, it happened twice.
02:41 Twice. Twice to you.
02:43 We were high-strung, both of us.
02:45 Russell even begins destroying the set at one point,
02:47 tossing out misogynistic names at the actress.
02:50 Since the blow-up, Tomlin's insisted that she and the director are good friends.
02:53 To them, it was just an extremely heated professional disagreement.
02:56 Our mission has nothing to do with this nuts petroleum fixation.
03:00 This is systic, toxic, what?
03:02 Why don't you just call me?
03:03 You want me to drive cars, right?
03:04 I have a BMW SUV, and I like driving.
03:07 I'm sorry.
03:08 Number 7, The Juno Effect?
03:11 Your parents are probably wondering where you are.
03:13 I mean, I'm already pregnant, so what other kind of shenanigans can I get into?
03:18 This 2007 coming-of-age story about a sarcastic and effortlessly cool teenager
03:23 who ends up pregnant created a stir come awards season.
03:26 Outside of introducing phrases like "home skillet" into the public lexicon,
03:30 according to Time magazine,
03:31 it may have also contributed to a statistical uptick in real-life teen pregnancies.
03:36 That ain't no Etch-a-Sketch.
03:38 This is one doodle that can't be undid, home skillet.
03:41 When several girls became pregnant at a high school in Massachusetts,
03:44 the media was quick to point the finger at movies like Juno
03:47 that they felt made teen pregnancy trendy.
03:50 This charge didn't necessarily stand up under any scrutiny.
03:53 If writer Diablo Cody expressed any regret about the movie,
03:56 it's that some took the character's choice not to terminate the pregnancy
03:59 as an anti-choice message.
04:00 All babies want to get born.
04:03 All babies want to...
04:05 God appreciates your miracle!
04:09 Number six, Super Mario Bros. goes down the tubes.
04:12 What single-cell organism did you evolve from?
04:15 Tyrannosaurus Rex, the Lizard King. Thank you very much.
04:19 Long before Chris Pratt voiced the beloved Nintendo character,
04:22 a live-action Super Mario Bros. movie became notorious for its truly dazzling failure.
04:27 Despite its use of innovative special effects,
04:29 the movie was a huge bomb,
04:31 failing to recoup its budget and topping many of 1993's worst of lists.
04:35 Okay, look, how many Mario's are there between the two of you?
04:38 There's three. There's Mario Mario and Luigi Mario.
04:41 Its lead actors hated working on the film,
04:44 and Mario actor Bob Hoskins would go on to say that it was the worst movie of his career.
04:48 Nintendo would be a lot more careful with film rights to its franchises as a result.
04:52 Given how horrendously received the original was,
04:54 it's a wonder the 2023 animated version was made at all.
04:57 I'd call them the Super Mario Bros.
05:00 Yes!
05:05 Number 5. Heaven's Gate ends the New Hollywood movement.
05:08 You're not in my class, kid. You never will be.
05:12 You have to die first and be born again.
05:15 In the Hollywood of the 1970s, the directors ruled.
05:18 Visionary directors like Scorsese, Spielberg, Coppola,
05:22 and others were the leaders of the New Hollywood era of filmmaking.
05:25 However, their movies saw diminishing returns as the decade wore on,
05:29 and Michael Cimino's 1980 epic western put the final nail in the coffin.
05:33 Cimino's perfectionism led to numerous takes and delays,
05:36 which led to a ballooned budget and a near four-hour runtime.
05:40 It's getting dangerous to be poor in this thing, Vick.
05:43 Isn't it?
05:45 It always was.
05:47 Heaven's Gate was also picketed upon release
05:50 due to accusations of mistreatment of animals on set.
05:53 The movie flopped hard, both critically and financially,
05:56 and became symbolic of the excesses of the period.
05:59 Its failure gave studios the ammunition they needed to tighten the reins
06:03 and the spending of their creators.
06:05 Do you remember the...
06:07 good...
06:11 gone days?
06:13 Number four, the conqueror of films near a nuclear testing site.
06:16 She will bring woe to you, my son, and to your people.
06:21 A movie starring John Wayne as Mongolian Emperor Genghis Khan
06:25 is a terrible enough idea that can make you sick,
06:27 but this notorious 1956 epic was accused of making its cast and crew literally sick.
06:32 The Conqueror was filmed downwind from a nuclear testing site,
06:35 whose radioactive dirt was then shipped to Hollywood to create consistency
06:39 between scenes filmed on location and studio sets.
06:42 For good or ill,
06:45 she is my destiny.
06:48 Over the next several years, a large portion of the movie's stars and crew
06:52 developed fatal cancers.
06:53 Even visitors to the set would develop cases.
06:55 Although there are skeptics who insist these numbers are consistent with national averages,
06:59 it's a connection that the film's producer, Howard Hughes,
07:02 felt guilty about in his later years.
07:04 Let two men guard this woman in her tent.
07:08 If ill befalls her,
07:10 they shall die the slow death.
07:12 Number three, depiction of teenagers in Thirteen.
07:15 How do you explain $860 in your purse?
07:19 What do you expect me to say, Mom?
07:22 We jacked it, okay?
07:24 Nikki Reed was only 13 when she co-wrote the screenplay to this indie drama,
07:28 so the fact that it was based on her life was a little disturbing for a lot of folks to handle.
07:32 Thirteen follows two middle schoolers engaging in various illicit behaviors
07:36 that parents and producers didn't want to believe.
07:38 Oh, damn.
07:41 How long is this gonna last?
07:44 For some screenings, director Catherine Hardwick even had to bring in experts
07:48 on juvenile delinquency to speak to audience concerns.
07:51 Even Reed and her co-star Evan Rachel Wood felt the pressure of it all,
07:55 later revealing that they didn't speak for years after the film was completed.
07:58 You're really cruel, Tracy.
08:01 I mean, I'm sure you can be a sweet kid when you want to,
08:04 but right now, you're a really bad influence.
08:07 Number two, deaths on the Twilight Zone set.
08:10 You're moving into a land of both shadow and substance,
08:13 of things and ideas.
08:15 You've just crossed over into the Twilight Zone.
08:19 In 1982, John Landis was filming his segment for the Twilight Zone anthology film
08:24 with star Vic Morrow and two child actors.
08:26 The scene called for Morrow's character to rescue two children
08:29 from a village during the Vietnam War amid heavy fire and explosions.
08:33 One of these explosions caused a real helicopter to crash,
08:36 killing Morrow and the children.
08:38 In the dock are the director John Landis and four associates,
08:40 all charged with the involuntary manslaughter four years ago
08:43 of three actors, including Vic Morrow,
08:45 in an accident that took place during the filming of Twilight Zone.
08:48 The tragedy and ensuing trial for manslaughter
08:50 uncover the shoot's outrageous labor violations.
08:53 Landis neglected to secure waivers that would allow the children to work at night,
08:57 especially in a scene with explosives.
08:59 The director and various crew members were acquitted.
09:01 However, the event led to stricter guidelines for set safety
09:04 and effectively ended Landis' friendship with Steven Spielberg,
09:07 his co-producer on the film.
09:09 Bill, you look kind of cranky this evening.
09:11 Yeah, I'm pissed all right.
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09:28 In the 1940s, no Hollywood actress typified virtuous femininity
09:42 like Casablanca star Ingrid Bergman.
09:45 But in 1949, the Swedish born screen goddess teamed up
09:48 with Italian neo-realist Roberto Rossellini
09:51 in a role that ran counter to her established persona.
09:54 And the making of Stromboli led to a firestorm of controversy
09:57 when the married actress had an affair
09:59 and became pregnant with the director's child.
10:01 But what is the matter? Why are you all against me?
10:04 I haven't hurt anyone. Why does everyone act like this?
10:06 She was denounced on the floor of the US Senate
10:09 and right-wing gossip columnists like Hedda Hopper stoke the hate.
10:12 Bergman remained in Italy.
10:14 She was still hated in the US when she made Anastasia,
10:16 her first Hollywood movie in seven years.
10:18 Despite winning an Oscar for that role,
10:20 she wouldn't appear publicly in Hollywood for another three years.
10:23 Yes, I understand him too, father, but who understands me?
10:26 Which of these movie scandals did you remember?
10:28 Tell us in the comments.
10:30 Not an easy day to forget.
10:32 No.
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10:40 [music]